About the Artist

Artist Biography:
Kelly Berg (b. 1986, Concord, Massachusetts) was raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota and is currently based in Los Angeles, California. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2008. Berg has presented solo exhibitions at Craig Krull Gallery, Melissa Morgan Fine Art, The Pete and Susan Barrett Art Gallery at Santa Monica College, and The Lancaster Museum of Art and History. Berg was the outdoor featured artist for “Art & Nature 2022” at the Laguna Art Museum and created an interactive installation “Pyramidion”, featuring seven large-scale reflective pyramid sculptures placed in the landscape of Laguna Beach. Her work has been featured in group exhibitions at many notable venues including USC Fisher Museum of Art, Museo Ercolanense Portici - Napoli in Italy, The Los Angeles International Airport, The Ronald H. Silverman Fine Arts Gallery at California State University, The Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art at Pepperdine University, and The Manhattan Beach Arts Center. Berg’s work is part of the permanent collection of The Lancaster Museum of Art and History, The Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation, and many private and corporate collections. Berg was an artist-in-residence at the Art 1307 Cultural Institution in Naples, Italy (2019) and at Boxo Projects in Joshua Tree, California (2021). During both residencies she created works in dialogue with the landscape and the unique geologic features specific to those locations. Her work has been featured in The Los Angeles Times, Whitehot Magazine, Artillery Magazine, Curator, Art Miami Magazine, Quiet Lunch, Art Now LA, Art & Cake, Stu News, and Easy Reader News among many other publications, and was the subject of an episode of Santa Monica City TV’s “Wave Arts and Culture” television series.

Artist Statement:
"My work explores our human connection with the natural world and the experience of the sublime. Building upon the history of landscape painting, my paintings offer a contemporary perspective while evoking the primordial. I am interested in places where archeology and geology intersect and the mysteries lost to the passage of time. In my paintings time is presented in the geological scale through my depictions of the movement of tectonic plates, rock formations and minerals, and the cycle of destruction and creation ever present in volcanic eruptions. My work expresses beauty and danger simultaneously, as I am interested in the psychological experience of the sublime within the viewer and inspiring the reverence of nature in these times when human activities cause it to be constantly under threat.
Integral to my work is the genuine experience of being within the landscapes I portray. Outside my studio practice I travel to the geologic sites that my work references such as the active Kilauea Volcano in Hawaii, Mount Vesuvius in southern Italy, and National Parks such as Lassen Volcanic, Joshua Tree, and The Badlands. Volcanoes and plate tectonics are a central theme I investigate through my work not only visually but conceptually. Within my paintings and my work across mediums, the pyramid form has developed to symbolize geologic energy within the earth while also referencing ancient Egyptian pyramids and their origin story. My approach to painting utilizes renaissance techniques and compositional geometries while introducing metallic pigments and textures that relate to the mineral rich geologic environments I draw my influence from. With nature at the center of my practice, I expanded outdoors to sculptural installation through an ongoing portable land art project of several years. I create pyramid sculptures from mirrored and reflective plexiglass and place them out in the actual landscape and document this through photography. I am interested in these momentary experiences in nature and the practice of “leave no trace" in addition to viewing art outside the confines of the gallery and studio spaces. In turn, this outdoor process informs my work back in the studio. My goal is to present nature within my work in ways that inspire an emotional response within the viewer created through many layers of complex imagery, ultimately encouraging curiosity and positive connection to our ever-changing earth."

Photo by Alan Shaffer, 2023. Kelly Berg is pictured in her studio in Venice, CA.